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Ashley Gaddis

Mailing Address:

43 Foundry AvenueWaltham, Massachusetts 02453-8313

Telephone:

617-618-2048

Ashley Gaddis brings extensive expertise in developing and implementing high-quality knowledge transfer, communications, and outreach strategies that ensure researchers, professional developers, and technical assistance providers deliver findings and messages in ways that have a lasting impact on the field. Drawing on her background in anthropology and journalism, she adeptly contextualizes and customizes complex information for diverse audiences, enabling practitioners and policymakers to apply study findings and evidence-based practices to improve outcomes for students.

As Dissemination Manager for the Regional Educational Laboratory-Northeast & Islands (REL-NEI), Gaddis promotes the use of REL-NEI findings through engaging events and innovative products that adhere to Plain Language and Institute of Education Sciences (IES) guidelines. In addition to overseeing the REL-NEI website, she leads the design of REL-NEI multimedia products (e.g., newsletters, online tools, infographics, videos, interactive data visualizations) and Research-Practice events that support the practical use of research evidence at the classroom, school, and district levels. She has written a series of REL-NEI articles focused on the collaborative research process, produced a series of video interviews with REL-NEI stakeholders, and guided the design and delivery of over 50 REL-NEI webinars.

Gaddis also serves as Dissemination Manager for EDC’s Center for Early Learning Professionals, which supports the professional growth and effectiveness of Rhode Island’s early education workforce. She works with project leadership to design and implement the Center’s strategic communications and outreach plan, including promoting the Center’s catalog of over 75 online and face-to-face professional development offerings. She led the design of the Center’s website, and continues to oversee the site's user-focused and culturally responsive learning experiences, including five sets of online learning modules and over 80 Web-based application assignments.

Previously, Gaddis created interactive, multimedia, and Web-based training products for EDC’s Head Start National Center on Program Management and Fiscal Operations, advancing its efforts to help Head Start programs use evidence-based practices to improve services for young children and their families. She was part of a team that developed a suite of evidence-based products to improve governance in Head Start programs nationwide, including the Governance Readiness Tool and the Head Start Governing Body and Tribal Council Certification online learning module.

Before joining EDC, Gaddis served as a public relations associate at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a policy research center that convenes leaders from the academic, government and business sectors to examine critical challenges facing society. Previously, she worked as an education reporter for The Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse, NY.

Gaddis received a BA in Anthropology from Stanford University and an MA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Colorado at Boulder.